Shopping Square [Kiah]

[Steffenee]

Bird was out walking alone, she didn’t have anything else to do, everyone else in her family was busy and she didn’t want to just sit around doing nothing. Instead she had walked to the dance studio to see if anyone was there practicing today. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to see them today though; she knew it would be closed. She sighed she wanted something to do something that would keep her entertained. She would be writing, or dancing, but there was no space by her house at the moment, or in her house either—she could sometimes dance in her room but Kit was in there doing something or another—and she didn’t have anything to write with. She sometimes wished that it wasn’t so hard to feel happy with her life. She knew she had a pretty good life, she wasn’t living on the streets—anymore—and she had enough food to keep her alive. That should make her happy right? Well she didn’t feel happy at the moment. Every day was the same thing for her and she just wished that something would happen. But you have to be careful for what you wish for. The last time she wished for something interesting to happen she was kidnapped by a man and held for two days by him. That wasn’t something that she wanted to repeat any time soon.

She started thinking about where Skid and Hornet were, they were sometimes home, but most times they were out trying to make money so that they all didn’t go hungry. She wished that they would be home more or be able to afford more, or anything. She mentally scolded herself for being so selfish. She should be grateful for what she had. That was what she was always taught as a McConnell. Be thankful for everything. She was thankful to have a house, and to have her family. She was thankful that she had food, even though sometimes it was lean times, and she was thankful that she had clothes. Patched and worn clothes were better than no clothes, and it wasn’t like she was going to school, so she didn’t have to worry about other girls her age pointing out a tear in her dress here or a rip in her dress there. It was hard for her not to go to school though, she loved to learn, her siblings knew that, but it was safer for none of them to go to school and she knew that.

She had reached the corner of the street and across it a large factory loomed above her. She turned down the street that would lead her into the slums of district eight eventually. She was still on the nicer side of town, and she might’ve been able to pass for a better off child if it wasn’t for her worn and patched dress. Sometimes she thought that the dresses looked nice, but other times it was hard for her to understand how she could look nice in a worn dress. Her hair was pulled back into two braid-pigtails and you could see her ivory skin with no dirt or grim on it yet. She liked it when she was clean, when she didn’t look like a street kid, which is what she pretty much was. She continued to walk down the street as she reached a small shopping square where people roamed around from shop to shop in the warmer weather for the time. She smiled some seeing the people, the normal people as she started to dart through the center of the square, afraid of being in a lard group of people. She didn’t like large groups as they were more people she didn’t know and that could harm her. She almost looked like a mouse skittering through the crowd looking as if she was trying to stay as small as possible and as unnoticed as possible.

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[kiah]

We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up ev'rybody and sing

Head bobbing Hutton walked through the streets. He could feel the rhythm of the music in his step. He loved music. Weather it just be sang, or if it had an instrument with it. It was a happier side of District 8. A side that let the people of the district smile once in a while. A smile that was contagious. One person smiles and starts sinning and before you know it the whole district might join in. that didn’t happen often, but when it did, Hutton was there in the mist of it. now walking down the deserted quite street he had a song full of life, happiness. But in a way, it was a dream of Hutton. A Dream that he wished he had every day. A happy family. A father, that he could look up to. Be proud of. A Mother. Stable, bubbly full of life. But he knew that was never going to happen… but a boy can dream, and Dream Hutton did.

He hummed happily, the only delightful sound to be heard, apart from the sound of his footsteps. They comforted him. He felt that if he could hear his footsteps that he knew he would be safe. Sometimes he got scared walking around the district on his own. He doesn’t know what had happened to his father. And sometimes his evil thoughts got the better of him. Thinking of his father made a surge of anger flow through him, making the song not seem as good as it had seemed. To tell the truth he now detested the song. he may want a family full of love, but his father would never fit the picture, a scowl mad its way onto Hutton’s face. Turning the once grinning face into what into an unpleasant one.

He suddenly stopped humming. It wasn’t as pleasant has it had been. His father wrecked everything. He hated him to the core of the earth! He had done no good to the family! He had destroyed it. Turned his own family into ash, and then he had sat on it! he had just used his family to cure the hatred he had deep down. Hutton couldn’t even bring himself to say his name. it brought shame on him to even think about him. Hutton could have spat on himself here and then. That’s how ashamed he was. He had promised himself that he wouldn’t bring his name up. But whenever Hutton was happy his father haunted him. Wrecked any moment that he felt glad to be living here.


Soon Hutton found himself at the town square, but he wasn’t in any mood to be there. He felt sick. He just wanted to go home and mop around. But he couldn’t. he had work to do. Someone had to get the money in. and he was the one… but he couldn’t bring himself to get on his horse. He felt so low. He felt like… well like shit. Plain and simple. But as he was turning around something caught his eyes. At first he thought it was a annoying little fucker of a fly flying around his head, but then he realised how wrong he was. How wrong he was. Because there was no fly. It was a girl. she looked like she wanted to get out of there. But she somewhat looked familiar, but from where? Hutton couldn’t figure it out. This made him frustrated. He had to find out more. So he did some child stalking.

[Steffenee]

Bird continued to weave through the people like an expert and she knew that they were going to be on every side of her. She knew that she needed to get out of there or a person might take her away from her family and then she wouldn’t be happy, she would probably die in fact. All she could think was that she had to get out of there and she had to get out of there without being noticed by anyone, including Peacekeepers. She made her way out of the crowd after only a few more cuts through gaps she couldn’t see until she right there. She didn’t understand why it was so busy today, to her knowledge nothing was happening, and she would know because she was up there almost every day wither it be with Kit to buy food, or to watch the dancers at the studio.

After making it out of the crowd she turned down a side street that was empty except for one or two people walking down it. She didn’t normally go down this street because of how empty it always was, but she knew that the other streets that were more main stream would be full of people trying to get home or to the shop on that day, who knew why. She walked down the street pulling at her hair as a nervous habit of hers. She was scared. She was scared compared to nothing else but when she was walking alone and had no one there to protect her. It made it even worse when she realized a man was following her. She didn’t know what he wanted or why he was there, all she knew is that he was there and he was following her. How did she know? She remembered seeing him watch her as she left the square and now he was following her. What did he want?

She didn’t know how much longer she could take him following her he had followed her all the way down the street and now they were approaching the end of it and she didn’t know what to do. She could turn left to go home or she could try to stop and see why he was following her. There was no one around though so what if he tried to take her, what if he tried to kidnap her like that other man had done. She couldn’t breath her mind was spinning and she reached the end of the street so she had to make her choice. She turned around and watched him approach her and she just stood there. She was frozen in place she didn’t know what had come over her but it had and now she was standing there just waiting for him to pick her up and take her away so she was never seen by her family again. She tried to take a deep breath and clam down so she didn’t pass out and make it easier for him to take her without anyone realizing, if he did try to take her at least then she could scream.

She recognized him though, she couldn’t remember from where or why but now that she was actually looking at him she saw him and realized she knew him. She wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing yet she could only hope that it was a good thing.

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[Dark Angel]

Challice kept her jacket tight to her as she walked through the streets, done for the day. Her parents had given her some free time, for once. And of course, she had absolutely no idea what to do. Freedom from the store was rare, unless you counted the hour she spent shaving yew trees. Other than that, she thrived in the shop where she designed clothes for public events.

She turned a corner, wanting to find solace in an empty street. Of course, you could count on District Eight to be bustling about, packed full of the population. This would be tricky, very much so. But she would....manage? And that's when she saw them.

A young girl, with auburn hair was standing very still in the street, as though she were frozen. Some distance away, a young man stood. Chalice gulped, not sure what to make of this. People weren't her foremost specialty. If she did something wrong, it might result in someone hurting her over something she had said.

[kiah]

The child looked scared, uncomfortable, and Hutton wanted to know why. Having the past he had… he couldn’t just let this go. He felt some sort of protection for this girl, any girl really. He didn’t like seeing them scared, uncomfortable or in pain, and when he did, he felt the need to help them, to make sure they were alright. This little girl, she looked, well, petrified, and it broke Hutton’s heart. So here Hutton was. Following the girl. he never put any thought into how the girl was going to react by this… but then he thought who cares? I mean I’m not about to hurt the kid. But he still didn’t want to scare her, because of course it’s not every day you have someone following you down the street. A man. Who may look suspicious. Hutton followed the girl around the corner where her walking became a little tenser, more uncomfortable, this worried him. Maybe he should just back off? He thought. but there was like an invisible string that kept him going, urged him forwards. So he kept going placing one foot in front of the other, trying to make himself hear able, he didn’t want to spook the girl any more than she was, so he decided to make sure she knew that he was there, if that was the right decision? Hutton didn’t know.

After what seemed like a long time, Hutton thought he would day something to her. he had thought about it. and it had come to him as a surprise that the thought only appeared now. You had someone following you, they didn’t say anything, and how are you meant to feel? Scared, petrified. Hutton felt the guilt claw at him like a rabbit scratching at your eyes. He felt shame wash over him. He opened his mouth about to say something when the girl froze. Slowly she turned around, never taking her eyes off Hutton, not even for one moment. She looked ghostly white, and Hutton could see her struggle for breathe, as she took slow deep breathers trying to keep clam.

Then Hutton saw something shift in her eyes. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he saw a movement, and the girl seemed to relax a bit. Hutton felt relieve flow through him, after all he wasn’t here to hurt the girl, he was just going to make sure she was alright. At this point Hutton would usually pull out some of his charm, his cheesy side. But this was a young girl, barely older than 12. But she looked so young, so vulnerable. She had long dark hair, and small yes, she was very short, Hutton found her to being cute, like little kid cute, and he felt a strange emotion flow through him, it warmed him from head to toe.

“Hey!” he said cheerfully, and relax, trying to ut a peaceful air around them. “how you doing?” he asked carefully looking closely at the girl, then added as an afterthought, “relax, love, I just saw you and you looked scared… I was just making sure you were alright… I probably shouldn’t have followed you, If you want me to leave…..” he asked letting his voice trail off. He didn’t really want to leave. But he didn’t want to make the girl uncomfortable. Then he also thought that maybe if he made a joke that might loosen up the tension.

“okay, okay, here’s a good one!” he said painting a friendly smile on his face. “why did the chicken cross the road?” he asked letting out a light laugh.